About 20% of the population of India lives below the poverty line. So people falling in that category are unable to meet their daily needs due to their unreasonable income and poor economic condition. In such a situation, they are not even able to maintain their family members. What can we say about clothes and other things? Therefore to deal with these social conditions of hunger and malnutrition of children, both the central and state governments have started various social assistance schemes. Anganwadi Centre Programme is one of them dedicated to child and mother care especially in rural areas.
Let’s know about the Anganwadi Centre Programme
Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) are a part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, which was launched by the Government of India on 2 October 1975. It is one of the flagship programmes of the central government which provides basic health care to children and nursing mothers. The basic health care activities of the Anganwadi Centre Programme include six services such as supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health check-up, referral services, nutrition and health education and pre-school education provided to children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Let’s know about Anganwadi Centre
Each Anganwadi Centre is a local campus operated under an Anganwadi Worker (Anganwadi Sevika, AWW), who is appointed by the State/UT Government under the guidelines of the Ministry of Women Development and Child Welfare, Government Of India. An Anganwadi Worker performs her responsibility in the Anganwadi Centre with the Anganwadi Helper (Anganwadi Sahayika), who is also attached by the government to assist the Anganwadi Worker. A Mukhya Sevika (Anganwadi Supervisor) guides around 40 and 65 Anganwadi Workers and also provides on-the-job training to them. So we can say that an Anganwadi centre is run under the supervision of 3 persons namely Anganwadi Supervisor, Anganwadi Worker and Anganwadi Helper.
Role and Responsibilities of people serving in Anganwadi Programme
Role and Responsibilities of Anganwadi Supervisor
As we already know that an Anganwadi Supervisor looks after the Anganwadi Centres and guides the Anganwadi Workers to maintain their premises in good condition. For this they visit Anganwadi Centres, and do some important work like:
(i) Checks the list of beneficiaries and beneficiary items in the possession of Anganwadi Centre,
(ii) guides the Anganwadi Worker in estimating the correct age of the children, correct method of weighing the children and plotting their weight on the growth chart,
(iii) to guide Anganwadi Workers in providing health and nutrition education to mothers, and
(iv) Maintains data of Anganwadi Centres.
Role and Responsibilities of Anganwadi Workers
An Anganwadi Worker acts as a bridge between the beneficiary people and the government providing assistance and also acts as a representative of the government in their jurisdiction. Some of the roles and responsibilities are mentioned below:
(i) They provide health and nutrition education to mothers and counseling on breastfeeding/infant and youth feeding practices. Being close to the local community, they also motivate married women to adopt family planning/birth control measures.
(ii) They organise nutritional supplements for children (0-6 years) and pregnant and nursing mothers by planning menus based on locally available food and local cuisine.
(iii) They organise non-formal pre-school activities in the Anganwadi premises for children in the age group of 3-6 years and help in the design and making of indigenous origin toys and play equipment for use in Anganwadi Centres.
(iv) They do door-to-door visits to the local community to educate the parents so that the mothers can plan for an effective role in the growth and development of the child with special emphasis on the newborn child. Apart from this they also maintain files and records regarding births and deaths in their jurisdiction and share the information with the Panchayat Secretary or Registrar.
(v) They inform the supervisors/CDPOs about any developments in the village that require their attention and intervention, especially in relation to the work of coordinating arrangements with various departments.
Role and Responsibilities of Anganwadi Helpers
As we know that Anganwadi Helpers help in smooth running of Anganwadi Centres. Here we are going to discuss some of the roles and responsibilities of Anganwadi Helpers:
(i) Cooking and serving food to children and mothers
(ii) Cleaning the Anganwadi premises daily and helping to maintain good condition
(iii) Cleaning and care of young children, and
(iv) bringing the children from their parents to the Anganwadi Centres; and close the Anganwadi premises and leave them at their homes
Recruitment of people serving in Anganwadi Programme
In every state or union territory of India, the department concerned with child and family welfare notifies about the recruitment of Anganwadi Workers and their Helpers. Each Gram Panchayat has at least one Anganwadi Centre established by the District Administration based on the population of the local area. For this they keep publishing notifications from time to time.
Eligibility Criteria for Anganwadi Supervisors
(i) The age of the person should be between 21 to 35 years.
(iii) They must have passed Bachelor’s degree in any stream.
Eligibility Criteria for Anganwadi Workers
(i) The person should be a married female member of the local community (Gram Panchayat)
(ii) Their age is between 21 to 35 years (21 to 40 years for SC/SC category person and 21 to 45 years for widowed and divorced women).
(iii) They should have passed 10th class
Eligibility Criteria for Anganwadi Helpers
All the criteria mentioned for Anganwadi Workers are required for Anganwadi Helper except that their educational qualification should be at least 5th standard.
Here we are summarizing the eligibility criteria of Anganwadi Employess below:
| Posts | Age Limit (in Years) | Education Qualification | Salary |
|---|
| Anganwadi Supervisor | 21 to 35 | Bachelor’s degree in any stream | 5000-15000 |
| Anganwadi Worker | 21 to 35 | 10th standard | 3000-10000 |
| Anganwadi Helper | 21 to 35 | 5th to 8th standard | 2500-5000 |
- The remuneration of Anganwadi employees may vary and may fluctuate with the norms of the State or Union Territory Government.
Application and Selection Process
The recruitment process of Anganwadi employees is different in every state or union territory of India. In some States/UTs the selection process is based on merit only based on the number of applicants applied. In this process the marks of 10th, 12th and graduation are considered while preparing the merit list. Whereas in some states or union territories the selection process is classified into two stages: written test and interview-based. Also, reservation norms are followed in some States/UTs as per government norms as per the seat vacancies and available circumstances.
If you are living in rural areas of India, and willing to join this community-based government service, then you must be aware of the notifications published by the district administration regularly for the recruitment of Anganwadi workers, if the seats are vacant in your living area.
